Teaching From the Front: Strategies

 

Consultant Research Group, December 2020

Overview:

In response to the additional challenges posed by restrictions due to Covid-19, The Consultant Research Group have created a series of succinct ‘teaching from the front’ strategies.  Depending on the teacher who is using our strategies, some of these may be new ideas, whilst others may have been done before and ‘forgotten’ due to the additional challenges of teaching this year.  These strategies will be of benefit more widely, for teaching in more ‘normal’ conditions too.

You will also find a brief summary of what educational research tells us about this area, as well as why it is particularly important to focus on this area of teaching practice during the current Covid situation.  There are also suggested practical steps that teachers could use in their classroom, together with some suggested additional reading/research.

How to use this resource:

• These strategies could be used with departments or individual teachers
• The techniques could be used by a teacher as a refresher
• Departments could identify key strategies to focus on collectively
• Trouble-shooter – use individual pages with staff
• Print off and use as a tool; stick it on the wall in the department base as a reminder

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Strategy 1: Assessment for Learning (AfL)

1. Why is it needed? 

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is an approach to teaching and learning that creates feedback which is then used to improve students’ performance.  Our goal as teachers is to recognise the difference between: ‘I taught it’ and: ‘They learnt it’ (Lemov, 2020).  Under the current constraints of teaching ‘behind the safety line’, we can’t circulate, read over students’ shoulders or listen in on discussions around the room.  This makes it more challenging than ever to formatively assess students’ levels of understanding throughout the lesson.  As Lemov (2020) explains, “students can much better reach mastery if we spot misunderstandings as they emerge and then find the best way to address them”. 

Wiliam (2012) suggests that: “all teaching really boils down to three key processes … finding out where learners are in their learning, finding out where they are going, and finding out how to get there”.  Actively planning for AfL within our lessons allows us to consider strategies to overcome some of these challenges.  It is worth remembering though, that: “if you’re not using the evidence to do something that you couldn’t have done without the evidence, you are not doing formative assessment” (Wiliam, 2006).

 

2. How can I approach this?

Pause Points - Lemov (2020) explains the importance of ‘pause points’, which is relevant to classrooms where students are sitting in rows and also to online lessons.  He suggests including opportunities for participation early in the lesson (within the first few minutes), particularly if it is online, to set the expectation of student involvement and fight the ‘tide of passivity’.  This also has the benefit of giving you as the teacher initial feedback, allowing you to check for understanding, which helps you to respond and decide what to do next in your lesson.  Pause points can be simple questions on the previous learning, a think-pair-share activity or a quick multiple-choice quiz – something that requires a response from everyone and allows you to quickly gauge who has understood and whether the class is ready to move on.

Low stakes quizzing – this can be multiple choice or true/false quizzes, or quick response questions.  These can be done verbally with a class Question and Answer session (in which case, think about how to involve as many students as possible and reach the ‘corners’ of the room), or using mini-whiteboards (the benefit of these is that you can get an immediate response).  There is more information about using mini-whiteboards on page 6.

Peer assessment – asking students to peer assess work, or discuss answers together could be a really useful strategy when you are unable to reach the corners of your classroom to read their work and give immediate feedback.  The visualiser is an incredibly useful classroom tool that allows the teacher to live-model what student answers should look like; there is further information about their use on pages 7-8.

Online feedback tools – such as Seneca learning or creating self-marking quizzes on Teams.  These can be set as homework or follow up work and have the benefit of providing students with immediate feedback on their learning.  This can avoid the challenge of having to ‘quarantine’ exercise books or worksheets before being able to mark them.

 

3. Further reading/research

- Lemov, D. 2020. Teaching in the online classroom: surviving and thriving in the new normal. Jossey Bass: New Jersey.

- Wiliam, D. 2011. Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press: Indiana.

 

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This resource was compiled by members of the Consultant Research Group, led by Karen Haward